15 August 2011

Copenhagenize's Top Five Bicycle Monuments

When we at Copenhagenize were discussing the title of the photo exhibition Monumental Motion we got onto the subject of actual bicycle monuments or sculptures. Permanent artistic works celebrating the bicycle and/or Citizen Cyclists. At many festivals - Burning Man comes to mind - temporary bicycle-related sculptures are constructed. Then there are monuments, large and small, dedicated to cyclesport racers. That's all well and good and brilliant, but we were thinking about permanent works - monuments, if you like - that were commissioned and paid for and that serve as a permanent symbol and celebration of the bicycle.

#1 - Aseaströmmen
Location: Stora Torget (Main Square) in Västerås, Sweden.
Artist: Bengt-Göran Broström (1947-2004)
Date: 1989
Aseaströmmen has long been a favourite of ours. It commemorates the thousands of cycling workers who went to and from work at the city's large factory - ASEA. The company, ASEA (General Swedish Electrical Company) was the main employer in the city for more than a century. The name of the statue combines the name of the company with the word 'strömmen' - translated as 'the current' or 'flow'. This current filled the streets of the city each time the shifts changed at the factory.

Even today, Västerås still has a modal share of around 30%.

We love the bold, brash size of the piece, the combination of modern lines (on the bicycles) and traditional figures (the cyclists), the positioning on Västerås' main square and the celebration - not of the massive corporation that defined the place - but rather the working classes who worked there for generations and who cycled rain or shine, snow or sleet.

Art is always a question of taste, but we love the style of this statue - okay, fountain - with it's rough but rounded forms. Again, the bicycles are reduced to simple forms, like in Aseaströmmen, but that's probably because the bicycle is so damn tricky to sculpt/draw.

Although the four cyclists (plus kid in the basket, at left) form one side of a larger sculpture, dedicating one fourth of the piece to the bicycle and the people who use it slides this work into second place.

Interesting, whilst googling for more images and info, it seems that most tourists take photos of the cyclists, as opposed to the other three sides.

High above Copenhagen's City Hall Square - and its busiest thoroughfare - is a golden cycling girl. She is one of two gold-plated statues who acted as a weather vane from 1936 to 1995. If the weather forecast was for rain, the woman with the umbrella and dog would rotate out onto the corner of the tower. If the cycling girl rotated out into the position on the corner, all the passersby on foot, bicycle or vehicles at the city's busiest intersection could see that fair weather was forecast. The sculpture and rotating construction weighs more than a tonne and it broke in 1996. The cost for repairing it is high so for now both weather girls look out over the city.
We love the choice of the cultural icon that is the Cycling Girl for the fairweather barometer. It's not surprising given the fact that Denmark has more songs, poems and literary works dedicated to the bicycle than any other nation and the 1920's and 1930's were two epic artistic decades regarding the bicycle. It is more than appropriate that a golden cycling girl stands proud above Copenhagen's main square.

I was up there next to her a couple of years back and she is huge. Easily 3.5 metres tall. But I was still moved by her beauty, form and graceful posture.

The 'Cyclisk' Bike Obelisk in Santa Rosa is primarily billed as a monument to recycling, community spirit (the bicycles and parts came from citizens and bike co-ops) and protecting the environment. Although looking at the google map link it would seem the obelisk is surrounded by car dealerships.

Even more ironically, car maker Nissan co-funded the Cyclisk, together with the city of Santa Rosa. Our readers are familiar with our Car Industry Strikes Back series but we're going to leave that one alone. One can't help imagine, however, that some viewers of this impressive obelisk are convinced that that is where bicycles belong.

Nevertheless, this modern work from 2010 is impressive. It weighs around 4500 kg, stands over 19 metres tall and is constructed using 340 bicycle frames.

In their proposal the artists wrote: "Made of recycled bicycle gears, rims, frames and hoops, [Cyclisk] will be a series of intersecting rhythms – a visual metaphor for the human experience – technology and the humanities – history and the future – individual and collective. Evoking a ‘world of possibilities,’ it will be a work communicating to all walks of life – all ages, relevant for years to come...."

That completes Copenhagenize's Top Five Bicycle Monuments. Let us know what you think in the comments. We had knowledge beforehand of four of the monuments - Girl on a Bicycle was the exception - so let us know if you know of any others that we may be interested in hearing about.

There were some that we looked at and so here come some honourable mentions: Honourable Mentions Bicycle and umbrella in Den Haag, Netherlands.

Statue of Bernhardt Jensen, former mayor of Denmark's second-largest city, Aarhus. Artist: Jan Balling and the title is ”Time, The City and The Man”. The mayor loved his bicycle and when he came into office in 1958 he did away with the official mayoral car.

Celebrating that rite of passage - learning to ride a bicycle. (With an helmet that is completely the wrong size and hardly respresentative of 125 years of the bicycle, but hey, we'll let that slide). In Traverse City, Michigan, USA. Details unknown.

Kilometres cycled by Copenhageners so far today

Copenhagenize.com is the blog of Copenhagenize Design Company. Online since 2007 and highlighting the cycling life in Copenhagen and around the world.

40 years ago Copenhagen was just as car-clogged as anywhere else but now 41% of the population arriving at work or education do so on bicycles, from all over the Metro area. 56% of Copenhageners themselves use bicycles each day. They all use over 1000 km of bicycle lanes in Greater Copenhagen for their journeys. Copenhagenizing is possible anywhere.